


Pressure

by LouisianaSkiess (TenWoolf)



Series: It's In Our Blood [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: F/M, look 3b was DARK and left a lot of possibilities on the table, we're going to have some fun with that
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-13
Updated: 2018-11-24
Packaged: 2019-06-26 15:14:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15665790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TenWoolf/pseuds/LouisianaSkiess
Summary: Laken and the Pack deal with the fallout of their actions while trying to juggle their lives as normal teenagers, or at least as normal as one can be living in Beacon Hills.





	1. I Am The Killer of the Sun

_Breathe in for luck,_

_breathe in so deep,_

_This air is blessed,_

_you share with me._

_This night is wild,_

_so calm and dull,_

_these hearts they race,_

_from self control._

**_~_** Dashboard Confessional, “[Hands Down](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0SxR6YVO-8)”

___________________________________________

Allison bit her lip, trying to rid the unsettled feeling in her chest.

“So far, so good.” Laken sighed, dropping down on the floor next to her. She picked up her Pretty Pretty Princess piece, a blue bracelet.

Lydia sulked and twisted the black ring around her finger, desperate to get rid of it. She kept eying the crown sitting prettily on top of Allison’s short curls, even thought it was be tossed around for a while before they started getting antsy for it.

“Are you okay?”

“Of course I’m not.” Lydia huffed. “I have the stupid black ring! I can’t win with this.”

“Not you, Princess Morbucks. I was talking to Allison.”

“Huh?”                        

“It’s your turn.” Laken handed Allison the dice they were using. “You’re just staring at the wall blankly.”

“Oh.” Allison shook the dice in her hand and let them clatter to the floor. “I was just lost in thought, I guess.”

“Is it the darkness? Stiles has been having trouble sleeping. He keeps telling me about this dreams. I guess I’m some sort of dream interpreter now.”

Allison got a yellow earring. It wasn’t her color; she cast a longing look at the purple piece sitting in the box.

Lydia hastily grabbed the dice from the floor and rolled, she groaned loudly when she didn’t land on the ‘put back’ or ‘ring’ tiles but on a purple necklace one. She put on the necklace and puffed out her cheeks in annoyance.

“I guess. It’s just a really unsettling feeling sometimes –” Allison scratched her ankle, “ –like a weight is pressing down.”

“Like anxiety?

Allison nodded. “Kind of.”

Laken took her turn. 

“I’ve been having dreams too.” Allison confessed. “But they feel more like hallucinations. Like about my Aunt Kate.”

“Lovely.” Lydia said acerbically into her cup of lemonade. “You sacrifice yourselves to a magical tree stump and you all get hallucinations. You know this is the kind of thing that needs to be on the warning label.”

“Stop being so bitter that you have the black ring. Besides, Deaton didn’t exactly offer that stuff up.” Laken pointed out. “He just said that they’d be carrying a darkness around their hearts. But to quote Dumbledore ‘Happiness can be found in the darkest of times if one only remembers to turn on the light’ so hypothetically, as long as they try to look for the good things they shouldn’t be too effected. And everyone’s got some sort of darkness in their hearts. It’s how you handle it.”

Allison laughed bitterly. “Finding the good in Beacon Hills? Might as well try and find a needle in a haystack.”

“That’s fairly easy actually. You just need a high power magnet. Or put it in water, the needle would sink,” Laken shrugged. “And I’m not going to comment on the state of things in Beacon Hills right now to jinx it.”

Allison rolled her eyes at Laken. “Can a high power magnet undo this feeling?”

“This is one doodle that can’t be undid.” Lydia and Laken quoted, monotone and in unison.

Allison smiled, despite herself and snatched the dice off the floor. “My turn.”

“So if you and Stiles are having reverb from this, any word on Scott?” Laken peered at Allison cautiously as she fastened a single pink earring on, trying to find a comfortable spot for the clip on to rest.

“No. Isaac said that he’s been afraid to shift. So maybe that’s something, but he hasn’t talked about it.”

Allison put back the crown and passed the dice to Lydia.

Laken frowned. “Don’t you find it weird that they admitted to basically doing the same thing with Isaac but he hasn’t been given the ‘darkness forever around your heart’ warning?”

“Yeah but he didn’t almost die.”

“He could have though. Deaton pointed out how dangerous it was to Stiles when him and Derek were holding Isaac under, but Derek was willing to take the risk of losing another pack member if it meant finding the other two.”

“He also wasn’t in the ice baths for more than a few hours.” Lydia commented, as she studied the board trying to find a strategy. “They were in there for sixteen hours.”

“So maybe his darkness is on a smaller scale? If he even has it at all?”

Allison shrugged.

Lydia finally lost the black ring, and then got it back one turn away from winning the whole game. She let out an angry cry.

Laken snorted, “at least we’re not playing Monopoly. Things get nasty with Monopoly.”

“Worse than this?” Allison snorted, as they watched Lydia angrily shove all her jewelry into the box at the center of the board game.

“Call it a draw?” They were both one piece away from winning.

Allison nodded, “draw.”

“We are both the Pretty Pretty Princesses.” Laken declared. “Sorry Lydia.”

Lydia let out another mournful and angry sound, muttering under her breath that there can’t be two princesses as she tossed herself face down on her bed.

Allison giggled, and started to remove her jewelry.

“Hold on!” Laken reached across the floor for her phone. “we have to immortalize this moment.”

Allison nodded and held out her hand for the phone. “I have longer arms.”

“You do indeed. Okay, say Pretty Pretty Princess!”

“Pretty Pretty Princess!”

Laken laughed when she saw the image on her phone. Lydia was clearly sulking in the background, while Allison and Laken wore bright smiles, showing off their won assortment of jewels.

“Say ‘hello’ to my new profile picture! Oh what should I caption it? ‘The Prettiest Princesses and the sourest loser, Ursula’ or nah?”

“Go for it.” Allison grinned and started removing her plastic jewelry. “But you might want to lose the ‘Ursula’ bit, you have to live with her.”

“Backtracking… So you and Isaac?” Laken prodded, typing on her phone.

Allison blushed and shook her head. “I don’t think he’s going to want to go there. He’s loyal to Scott. And there’s that whole Bro-Code.”

“Screw Bro-Code.” Lydia called from the bed. “And screw him. Literally. Please. You two both need to get laid.”

“What would your mother say, Lydia? That’s not very lady like,” Laken teased. Her phone buzzed in her hand. She laughed and nudged Allison, “Stiles says we’re the prettiest.”

“Stiles, huh?” Allison grinned. She looked at the comment over Laken’s shoulder and spotted the string of emojis after the line of text, which was mostly just a row of heart-eye smilies with a couple of crowns bookending them.

“Nuh-uh, I see that look in your eyes. No, ‘me and Stiles.’ I doubt he even sees me that way.”

“Oh trust me, he does.”

Laken shoved Allison’s shoulder making her laugh and tip over, sprawling out on the floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to Pressure, the sequel to In Our Blood!  
> this chapter was one of my favorites to write, so i hope you enjoyed it too.


	2. Just A Glimpse Of What I Have Become

_Pull the curtains back_

_I think my neighborhood’s on fire again_

_The kids are not alright it seems_

_at least they went outside this time,_

_the gunshot has gone off_

_But I am swimming in a foot race_

_There’s no finish line in site_

_and they already gave the first place medal_

~All Time Low “[Everything is Fine](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cYAW6N5ruI)”  

___________________________________________

Lydia and Laken sat side by side on the concert steps in front of the school waiting for Scott, Stiles, and Allison.

“Think they’re going to make it?”

Lydia hummed noncommittally.

“There they are.” Lydia smirked.

Scott and Stiles were walking toward them across the courtyard. Both looked ragged and tired and Scott kept looking over his shoulder. Stiles hung back a little, staring at his feet.

Laken eyed Lydia. “You’re enjoying this entirely too much.”

“What I’m enjoying is not being the only crazy one,” Lydia corrected.

“Stop enjoying it.”

“Can’t. Won’t.”

Scott sat on the brick railing and fidgeted with his backpack straps. “Allison here yet?”

“Nope.” Lydia toned down her smirk a little, “we’re still waiting for her, but she’s on her way.”

Scott rubbed his jaw tiredly and nodded. Stiles hung back, pacing and anxiously wringing his hands.

“So Scott…” Lydia baited, “why do you look so jumpy?”

“You are enjoying this way too much, Lyd.” Laken jumped up from her spot, caught Stiles’ arm, and dragged him a few feet away. “Okay, what gives? You’ve making me nervous watching you.”

“Nothing… nothing. I’m just…”

“Cut the crap, Stiles. You, Allison, and Scott all very nearly died. Brushes with death always leave people a little shaky. Then you went and almost got a concussion on top of that. I mean, sure, books usually tell you that NDEs give you some sort of extra-sensory ability like telekinesis or seeing spirits, but the reality is that it can be psychologically damaging, usually the after effects are widely seen as beneficial since the person usually comes out of it with a renewed vigor for life, but given the circumstance I’m going to go ahead and say it was damaging and I’m worried about all three of you! So share with the class? And by class, I mean me, I am the class.”

“How do you even know all this?”

“Oh my god! I’m taking psychology this semester.”

“Oh. We have that here?”

“Stiles!”

Stiles scratched the back of his neck and sighed. “Alright, alright. I didn’t sleep that well last night. Or any night this past week really. Like, I was fine at first and then slowly I stopped sleeping as well, then the nightmares started.”

“Nightmares? Stiles… I knew you weren’t sleeping well, I mean you fell asleep during Star Wars after you begged me to watch it with you and you nearly kicked me off the sofa. And the dreams, you’ve mentioned but…”

“And then last night I had this dream about you and…”

“Excuse me?”

Stiles face went pink, “no-not like that… okay well maybe like that… once… or twice…but this wasn’t like that. Not at all. It was like I was having a nightmare. And Lydia was there and there was this door…”

“Complete sentences, Stiles.”

Stiles cursed and rubbed his face roughly, “okay. So last night, I took an a shower and went to bed like usual, and I fell asleep, right?”

Laken stared at Stiles blankly, “I said sentences, not a bullet pointed play by play of your night.”

“No. It’s important. So I fell asleep, and then I woke up. At least I thought I woke up, and you were there, just sitting there on the floor reading a book or something. I asked you what you were doing in my room and you just stared at me, kinda like you’re doing right now actually.”

“Sorry. It’s just how my face is!”

“Then Lydia shows up and tells me to go back to sleep. But then I notice the door is open, and you tell me to close the door but Lydia tells me to leave it. And then I woke up before I could do anything about the door. Or at least I thought I woke up, I was at school and everything and talking to Scott about it all. It was a dream within a dream. I thought I woke up twice, but still I was still dreaming. But that last time, I woke up screaming. I haven’t done that since I was a kid.”

Laken bit the inside of her cheek. "If there’s one thing I’ve figured out, dreams aren’t always just dreams. Sometimes it’s more true and real than just your brain making sense of the day.”

“I – I know… if anyone would know that it would be you, but…”

Stiles cut himself off as Allison bounded up the sidewalk.

“Sorry I’m late,” Allison apologized while shoving her keys into her backpack.

“Almost, anyway.” Lydia said coolly. She still wore a slight self-satisfied smirk.  “Allison, are you okay?”

Allison stood still, eyes glossed over. She shook herself out of whatever revere she was caught in.

“Uh, yeah. I’m fine.”

“Scott?”

Scott blinked, “huh? Oh. I’m okay.”

“No, you’re not, it’s happening to you too. You’re seeing things, aren’t you?”

Lydia looked like she was trying to suppress a grin as she turned and strutted up the steps of the school, “well if you ask me none of you are fine.”

Scott hurried up the steps after her.

“How’d you know?”

“Because it’s happening to all three of you. Well, well, look who’s no longer the crazy one.” Lydia smirked, pushing open the double doors to the school.

“We’re not crazy.”

“Hallucinating? Sleep paralysis? Yeah, you guys are fine.” Lydia said sardonically.

“We did die and come back to life. That’s gotta have some side effects.”

“Okay so you’re not fine,” Laken shrugged, and walked backward in front of the group. “But you aren’t crazy either. PTSD, maybe. Most likely, though, it’s something that won’t be found in your psychologist’s DSM book.”

Scott looked a little afraid, “what do you mean?”

Lydia frowned. “Um, Scott… what do you do every full moon?”

A look of realization washed over Scott’s face, “ohhh.”

Laken wiggled her fingers, “supernatural.”

“So, maybe Deaton would know?”

A look and a shrug passed between Lydia and Laken.

The bell rang. It startled Stiles and Allison.

Stiles jumped into the conversation. “We have to keep an eye on each other. Okay? and Lydia. Stop enjoying this so much.”

Lydia shrugged feigning innocence, “what?”

Scott, Stiles, and Allison split from the group, heading to their first classes.

“Come on.” Laken laughed, pushing Lydia toward their first class of the day.

 

~~~

Lydia and Allison sat side by side, half focused on the canvases propped up in front of them. Across the table Laken sat painting her entire canvas, placed flat on the table, a soft dove gray and ranting.

“I just don’t get it! Ms. Morrell just up and quits and now we’re in art class? Who just quits like that? They didn’t even try to find another teacher either!”

“Calm down, Lake.” Lydia sighed, reaching over to pinch the paint brush and still Laken’s hand. “You’re getting paint all over the table.”

Laken huffed and set her brush down on the pallet. “They didn’t even attempt to get a substitute. Or is this school district that jinxed that no one would step up and take a class here after everything that went down a few weeks ago? I signed up for French classes, not art. I like art! But art doesn’t get me into college!”

“Lake, honey.” Lydia peered around her canvas, “it will be okay. Maybe you need to be in art, maybe, just maybe, it will calm you down.”

“What am I supposed to find my ‘zen’ while painting fields daisies and fruit bowls?”

Lydia quirked an eyebrow. “I think you need to do more yoga. Maybe drink some tea. And bathe yourself in aromatherapy lotion. Pick up baking a ridiculous amount of cookies again.”

Laken clinched her jaw at Lydia and changed tactics. “Allison, you can’t honestly be okay with this change, can you?” Allison didn’t answer, she continued to stare at her blank canvas. Laken glanced around the room at a few of their former French classmates. “Wasn’t Isaac in French?”

“Don’t you dare.” Lydia narrowed her eyes, pointing the handle of her paint brush at Laken.

Laken sank in her seat with a small pout. “Allison?” Laken tried again.

Allison was still focused on her blank canvas, but she had finally dipped her brush into a vivid red paint.

“Why isn’t everyone more concerned about everything.”

“If I was more concerned about everything then I would get nothing done.” Lydia shrugged, “if you ask me, you’re fixating on the wrong issue here. we should be focusing on your crazy friends.”

Laken picked up her paint brush again and started painting a layer white swirls coming from the top left corner of the canvas.

“Have I ever mentioned how much I hate you guys sometimes?”

Lydia cast a sidelong glance at Allison, who’s hand was shaking as she went to put brush to canvas.

“Not the steadiest hand for a marksman,” Lydia commented.

Allison’s lips pinched together. “It’s been happening for the past few weeks. Since that night.”

The paintbrush slipped from Allison’s fingers creating a harsh line of red across the canvas. Lydia sighed and reached over to take it away.

“Start over.”

“No.” Laken reached across the table to stop her, “turn a mistake into something else. You can’t always start over.”


	3. You Can't Tell Shelter From The Shade

_And you thought the lions were bad_

_Well they tried to kill my brothers_

_And for every king that died_

_Oh they would crown another_

_And it's harder than you think_

_Telling dreams from one another_

_And you thought the lions were bad_

_Well they tried to kill my brothers_

~Bastille, “[Daniel In The Den](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=gbcFPl0KCaM&feature=share)”

___________________________________________

While the school day started out in relative normality, by lunch the Pack was falling apart.

Stiles couldn’t read and kept falling asleep in class, Allison almost shot Lydia with an arrow, and Scott was losing control of his shifts, leaving Lydia, Laken, and Isaac on edge from keeping eyes on them.

Scott huffed as he sat their lunch table outside, “okay, so what happens to a person who has a near death experience and comes out of it seeing things?

With a tone of urgency, Stiles added. “And is unable to tell if it’s real or not?”

“And is being haunted by demonic visions of dead relatives,” Allison added, frowning.

“They’re all locked up because they’re insane.” Isaac quipped.

Laken swatted Isaac’s arm lightly. He grimaced for a second at her but grinned at the annoyed look on Stiles’ face.

“Ha. Can you at least try to be helpful, please?” Stiles leaned forward.

“For half my childhood, I was locked in a freezer.” Isaac leaned across Laken. “So, being helpful is kind of a new thing for me.”

“Hey dude, are you still milking that?”

“Yeah, maybe I am still milking that.”

Both boys were incredibly close to her on both sides and closing in even more to get into each other’s faces. She put up her hands and pushed them back in their seats gently.

“Okay. For realsies.” Laken interjected, “they’re all getting help from qualified psychiatrists and psychologists, probably on some sort of anti-depressant or behavioral medication, and actively in therapy. But given the nature of the origin of your symptoms, it isn’t going to be that easy.”

“Hi,” a voice came from the top of the table, startling half the occupants. “Hi, sorry. I couldn’t help overhearing what you guys where talking about and I think I actually might know what you’re talking about. There’s a Tibetan word for it, it’s called Bardo. It literally means ‘in-between state.’ The state between life and death.”

“And what do they call you?” Lydia asked, regarding Kira with scrutiny.

“Kira,” Scott said loudly and immediately looked embarrassed. He cleared his throat and said at a much more normal volume, “she’s in our history class.”

“Her dad replaced Mr. Westover.” Laken supplied and sent Kira and encouraging smile.

Lydia pursed her lips and nodded, then turned her attention back to Kira. “So are you talking Bardo as in Tibetan Buddhism or Indian?”

“She said Tibetan, Lyd.” Laken rolled her eyes.

The close scrutiny didn’t seem to faze Kira. She shrugged. “Either I guess. But all the stuff you guys were saying?  All that happens in Bardo. There are different progressive states where you can have hallucinations. Some you see, some you just hear. And you can be visited by peaceful and wrathful deities.”

Isaac’s nose twitched. “Wrathful deities? What are those?”

Lydia and Laken shared a look of appall.

“Like demons,” Kira offered.

“Demons, why not?” Stiles muttered, biting his thumbnail.

“Hold on,” Allison held up one hand, “if there are different progressive states then what’s the last one?”

“Death, you die.” Kira shrugged. "I’ll, uh, go now.”

With that she walked away from them.

“Great. That’s just what we need.” Laken slumped forward on the picnic table.

“What do you know about Bardo, Lake?” Stiles asked, his voice muffled by his hands over his face.

Laken shrugged. “All I know is that it’s part of the Buddhist cycle of rebirth; the transitional state or waiting period, between one life and the next. Or, Lydia, you might know it better in it’s Latin terms as a Liminal State. All I really retained from the lesson in Buddhism was about Nirvana.” She cast an sheepish look around the table, “mostly because of the band by the same name.”

Isaac choked back a laugh. “I guess it’s starting to Smell Like Teen Spirit in here.”

“Keep making that joke and I’ll see you again in the next life as a beetle.”

Isaac raised an eyebrow, “was that a pun, because –”

“Okay! Enough,” Stiles cut him off. “What do we do now?”

Scott sighed, “I guess it’s time to talk to Deaton. Stiles and I were going to go later when I went in for work, but…” he trailed off.

“Go,” Lydia frowned, waving them off.

“We’ll get your notes.” Laken added.

“Thanks.” Stiles nodded. Then he and Scott stood and walked off.

~~

“Would you stop fidgeting,” Lydia hissed.

“I’m sorry!”

Lydia narrowed her eyes.

“I can’t keep from thinking that it wasn’t a good idea for Stiles and Scott to go off without one of us with them to – I don’t know – stabilize them or something. Instead the three unaffected are here with Allison, no one is with them.”

“They’re fine. Now stop bouncing your leg or I’m going to rip it off.”

Lydia maintained a solid glare on Laken’s leg until the bell rang.

“I’m sorry!” Laken apologized half-heartedly as she shouldered around a pair making out in the hallway while trying to keep up with Lydia.

“I –,” Lydia started but was cut off by Allison joining them. The annoyed look was replaced with a calm smile. “Allison! So what’s the plan for the rest of the day? Want to go shopping? Oh, we can do homework and catch a movie?”

“Actually I’m going home,” Allison glanced to the side and added quietly, “with Isaac.”

“Oh.”

Allison caught the look on Lydia’s face and quickly corrected her, “we’re going to do homework together.  He’s behind in math.”

“Sure.” Laken nodded sarcastically. “Don’t worry, we won’t tell Scott.”

“Thank you,” Allison breathed. She waved and started down the hall with a light skip.

“Bye,” Laken laughed.

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!” Lydia called.

“Well,” Laken looped her arm around Lydia’s, “I guess this means it’s me and you and our hot dates called homework tonight. Also that’s really awful advice, Lyds…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> surprise? NaNo and my job are both kicking my ass and slowly effecting my mental state but there's always teen wolf isn't there?


End file.
